


if we could escape the crowd somehow

by rohesia



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, POV Theo, Post-Canon, photo booths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26111125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rohesia/pseuds/rohesia
Summary: “What, I can multitask,” says Liam, two parts smug, one part inexplicably shy as he shifts in Theo’s lap, trying not to fall off. Theo instinctively pulls him closer by putting one arm around his waist and immediately regrets it when Liam, startled by the movement, wraps both his arms around Theo’s neck.This thing is really fucking cramped.“Yeah, I noticed,” Theo concedes, keeping his arm where it is. His throat feels dry and it’s going to get drier if Liam won’t stop moving or staring down at him or biting his lips. Which Theo is decidedly not looking at. Liam has lips? That’s news.In which Theo and Liam stalk a fairy and get sidetracked.
Relationships: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken
Comments: 12
Kudos: 158





	if we could escape the crowd somehow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blacktreecle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacktreecle/gifts).



> Thanks to [blacktreecle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacktreecle) / [theowhy](theowhy.tumblr.com) for asking me to fill this prompt, I had the time of my life writing this, literally. The prompt was: "“Be quiet! You’ll get us caught!” but I had to re-phrase it a little for plot reasons, I hope that's alright! 
> 
> Yes, the title is from Hold it against me by Britney Spears because I listened to it repeatedly while writing this fic.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> **edit 09/09/2020** \- the wonderful, super talented [blacktreecle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacktreecle) made a fanart inspired by this work and it's breathtaking. [Find it here!](https://theowhy.tumblr.com/post/628729373798842368/he-briefly-wonders-what-he-must-have-looked-like)

They almost get made. 

It’s unexpected and a little mortifying, seeing as the fairy they’ve been stalking for the last three hours - in a mall, of all places - is using a glamour to look like a scrawny ten-year-old kid in overalls and a Pokèmon backpack. According to Deaton’s information, they’re dealing with a chaos-loving cast-out hellbent on creating his own army of changelings to wage war against the Fairy Queen, whose reaction to the entire affair was exhilarating amusement, so it’s their problem now (“He should be innocuous enough, the Queen stripped him of most of his powers before banishing him. Still, I advise caution.” Thank you very much.). 

“Isn’t she violating some kind of non-aggression pact by letting one of her subjects run wild in our world?” Liam had asked, earning a painstakingly detailed history lesson on the hazy diplomatic relations - or lack thereof - between their world and the Sidhe. 

“In short,” Theo had intervened, after ten pages worth of notes and thirty minutes later “she won’t claim responsibility because the fairy is a cast out and no longer under her protection but she  _ will  _ expect us to deal with and deliver him to her guards after we catch him, correct?”

“Exactly.”

Wonderful. 

Theo only hopes Argent’s contact - because, yes, there are freaking fairy hunters out there as well - makes it there in time, because this feels more like supernatural baby-sitting than an actual stealth mission. Well, technically they only need to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t kidnap and swap any kid, at least until the fairy Hunter gets to Beacon Hills. Still.

Trusting Liam to keep an eye on the fairy, Theo considers their next stop, based on the fairy’s position and on the number of people crowding the various shops and cafes in the mall, when he notices the kid drop down on one knee to tie his shoe. He squints.

“Do you think we’ll have to physically fight him?” Liam asks, as he looks at the kid through the glass of a claw machine and tries to win a plushie at the same time.

(“We’re blending in. Shut up.”) 

Theo makes a non-committal noise and shrugs. “I guess, if he tries something. Why? It’s not really a kid.”

“Would you drop-kick a real kid?”

“If I had to.”

“Why do I even as--,” Liam sighs, then smacks the glass when what looks like a fluffy pink bunny escapes the claw and re-joins its friends. “Ugh, I swear, this thing is rigged!”

Theo doesn’t see if Liam is feeding the claw machine another dollar but he does notice something far more worrying. The fairy’s only pretending to tighten up his shoes’ velcro straps and he’s actually inspecting his surroundings, looking for something. Or for someone. They’d been careful to cover their scents, like Derek taught them, and follow him from a distance, hoping to get him alone in a less crowded area of the mall, but something must have given them away. 

And if not, if the fairy is only being paranoid, they have less than four seconds to get away before he spots him and Liam. Theo’s considering dragging Liam towards the queue steadily forming outside a Starbucks store a few feet from them, but it’s too far away and they don’t look like two Starbucks kind of guys -- he should have traded his combat boots and black hoodie for a polo and a pair of hideous boat shoes like Lydia suggested, to mingle more easily, but there hadn’t been time to change -- so he can only hope the fairy hunter and the others are already outside covering every single exit. 

He’s about to grab Liam by his elbow and steer him away towards the nearest exit, hoping the brat will spot and follow them, when Liam takes his hand and brusquely shoves him in… the photo booth next to the claw machine.

Partly losing his balance due to the unexpected madhandling, partly forced down by Liam’s hands now pushing at his chest, Theo finds himself sitting on the photo booth’s uncomfortable chair and a lapful of Liam. He gapes.

“This really isn’t the time!”

Liam gapes back and shoves him, making his head connect with the booth’s wall behind him.

“Shut up, the fairy was about to spot us, I had to think fast!”

Massaging the back of his head, Theo looks at him and does his best to keep his expression neutral, even as he mentally swears for not considering this option himself. He’s  _ not  _ giving Liam an impressed look.

He is giving Liam an impressed look.

“What, I can multitask,” says Liam, two parts smug, one part inexplicably shy as he shifts in Theo’s lap, trying not to fall off. Theo instinctively pulls him closer by putting one arm around his waist and immediately regrets it when Liam, startled by the movement, wraps both his arms around Theo’s neck.

This thing is really fucking cramped. 

“Yeah, I noticed,” Theo concedes, keeping his arm where it is. His throat feels dry and it’s going to get drier if Liam won’t stop moving or staring down at him or biting his lips. Which Theo is decidedly not looking at. Liam has lips? That’s news. He clears his throat. “What now? We can’t lose him.”

As if on cue, Liam’s phone starts vibrating in the back pocket of his jeans, making them jump. Attempting not to tumble out of the photo booth in a most undignified manner, Theo slides back in his seat and presses his splayed fingers against the small of Liam’s back to steady him as he retrieves his phone. Meaning more shifting.

Theo wonders if Liam is deliberately keeping his eyes fixed on him as he reaches back with one hand, slightly arching his back and bending his head downwards. Their foreheads touch and Theo wills himself to keep his eyes open and, through sheer force of will, manages not to tilt his head to one side, closer, to do something entirely stupid.

But really. This isn’t the  _ time.  _ Problem is, it’s been almost five months since Monroe and the hospital and the damned elevator and it’s never the time. Whether that’s dependent on poorly timed attempts on Liam’s part or on anything both human and supernatural trying to kill them every other week, which activates Theo’s chimera skills and decidedly suppresses his human ones Theo has yet to figure out. 

He releases a shuddering breath, not caring in the slightest at how it might look, not when he’s been clearly baited into this, as Liam sits back, at a safe (but there is no safe, not with Liam) distance and taps at his phone. 

“Yes, we can,” he informs him. “Lose him, I mean. The hunter’s here with Scott and Derek, he’s taking over.”

Theo releases another sigh and relaxes back against the booth’s wall. Chimera skills disengaged. 

“Your stalking skills have improved, by the way,” Theo grins, pulling at the hems of Liam’s shirt playfully, because now it  _ is  _ the time and he can safely, shamelessly flirt back without risking to compromise the mission and cause an interdimensional political accident. As one does. 

“Yeah, so have your social skills. Marginally,” Liam flirts back, not missing a beat, even as Theo slips his fingers under his shirt and gently lets his nails scrape against his bare skin. His scent does something that makes Theo swallow, though.

Following the hypnotizing curve of Liam’s curling lips, Theo leans forward, his grip tightening. Liam’s heart jumps. Which is something that always pleases Theo, maybe too much, even when it feels dangerous and forbidden, even when he doesn’t mean to cause Liam to feel that way. Apparently they can’t hope to maintain any measure of control over whatever this is turning into.

But Liam is so open and warm and looming over Theo like a promise of something both easy and challenging that, for once, his brain shuts down and doesn’t try to figure it out. 

Which is a huge mistake, because he doesn’t notice one of Liam’s hands sneaking away towards the coin slot.

“Smile!” 

Moving again and going from sitting sideways to straddling one of Theo’s thighs, facing forward, Liam slings one arm around Theo’s shoulder and smashes their cheeks together as a blinding succession of flashes hits them. Theo rolls his eyes, knowing perfectly well it’s not going to show up in the photos anyway, because of their eyes, but between the third and the fourth flash he feels his lips curl into a grin that’s less harsh than his usual ones. That’s gonna show up in the photos, but he discovers that he doesn’t really mind and he turns his head just as Liam does. 

Theo doesn’t close the gap in time before the last flash, but it doesn’t matter. He briefly wonders what he must have looked like, in the half second between steeling his resolve and leaping forward to catch Liam’s lips with his own, hanging in the balance of heart-stopping terror and salvation. He wonders if that’s going to show up in the photo or if there is no language, no medium, capable of performing such a feat. 

But that’s also unimportant, so he just smiles against Liam’s lips -- also too late -- and falls away, away, away. 

  
  
  
  


Extra:

When Liam opens his backpack the next morning, looking for his notes on the Fairy World, he finds a plush bunny instead, and a note:

Obviously not rigged ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Any kind of feedback is greatly appreciated <3


End file.
